from Michael Barrett:

   Featured  on the NYFOS Next Feb. 4 program curated by David T. Little was the music of Kate Soper. David introduced me to Kate’s work, for which I am grateful. OK, she is still pretty young, so I forgive my own ignorance. She performed two excerpts from her full-evening work “Here Be Sirens” written for three sopranos and piano (played and sung into by the singers themselves), and a few percussive rocks. The full work is full of dialogue, pondering the sirens own future after millennia of being stuck on their island. Do they actually “eat” the sailors they lure ashore? You’ll have to hear a full performance. 

    But what was most striking to me was the virtuosic singing performance by Kate, Brett Umlauf, and Gelsey Bell (also a composer).  They performed from memory and gave a riveting, committed, full-on, even frightening performance. After the applause I waited for a moment, and then inquired, “Is it safe?” before going back onstage.